ios - VoiceOver pronunciation issue: "Live" "ADD"

Question

I'm trying to implement accessibility for an iOS App and have been bumping into some of the nuances and quirks involved.

For example: I have a label in my app that reads: "This is a live event." The definition of live in this context is "something that is currently happening" and when pronounced it should rhyme with "Five".

However, voiceover understands and reads the word "live" as in: "live and let die", and is mispronounced rhyming the word with "Give".

Similarly, another issue I am bumping into is with the word "ADD" in the context of "ADD A SELECTION". The meaning of the word in its context is "to add something to a basket", but is being pronounced as "A.D.D. (Attention deficit disorder)"

Is there a programatic way to give context to words when enabling your app for accessibility?

Answer 1

Instead of using tips and tricks with capitals or doubled letters that currently work but may be obsolete in a future version of iOS or inconvenient with braille, I suggest to use the accessibilitySpeechIPANotation key inside an attributed string in order to define the appropriate phonetic sound (available since iOS11): this method is proven and will last in time.

Phonemes can be generated thanks to your mobile device settings:

• iOS 13 +...: Accessibility - VoiceOver - Speech - Pronunciations.
• iOS 12: General - Accessibility - Speech - Pronunciations.